West Grand High School has pushed its graduation date back by one day in order to accommodate student athletes’ schedules and allow as many students as possible to attend.
A release shared on the West Grand High School Facebook page states West Grand students will graduate at 2 p.m. on May 24.
According to Principal Elizabeth Bauer, the decision stems from a change in the Colorado High School Athletics Association’s schedule.
“We can’t control the CHSAA calendar, we can control our date,” Bauer said in the release. “We want to stay with our traditional weekend and have moved the date one day.”
CHSAA pushed back all activities in the state by a week, leading to the state track meet being scheduled for May 21-23. West Grand High School’s original graduation date was May 23.
Bauer notes that other schools in the league have also changed their graduation dates as a result of the change to the CHSAA calendar.
However, she also acknowledges the change may be inconvenient, but said the district’s board of education, who voted on the graduation date change, looked into many factors when making the decision.
Ultimately, the board felt hosting the graduation on a Sunday still allowed time for travel and families to enjoy graduation weekend. They approved the date change at their meeting in October.
“We hope getting the date change out now will allow most people to adjust plans,” Bauer said. “The 2020 graduation date reflects our desire to support all students being able to be in attendance at graduation and still honoring the (West Grand School District) tradition of graduation on memorial weekend.”